I love writing for Kotaku and was super honored to get to write about the gaming influences behind Cyber Shogun Revolution. The essay explores some of the themes about revolutions and robots as portrayed in games like Mega Man X, Metal Gear Solid 2, and Nier:Automata. I had a lot of run researching and writing this one and hope you’ll check it out! It was also shared to io9 which was awesome.

While I don’t have a X-buster, I’ve pondered these questions and even took a stab at exploring my own answers in an alternate history book I recently wrote called Cyber Shogun Revolution. It pays tribute to a lot of the games I mentioned above. A massive revolution breaks out, motivated in part by individuals who question the status quo. Their true history is hard to figure out as the government leaders manipulate information and distort facts in favor of their own interpretation of the past. As tribute to some of my favorite games, it features a gigantic crimson mecha called the Sygma and Taro bots that duke it out with robot parasites. Mechas wield raiden swords (a nod to MGS2) and engage in Chrono Trigger tech-inspired attacks during a massive conflict with disparate sides questioning their given roles.